My Antonia By Willa Cather: Character Analysis

My Antonia, written by Willa Cather, is a classic coming of age story set in the American Midwest. The story follows Jim, the protagonist of My Antonia, after he moves to Nebraska to live with his grandparents, and details his experiences with his old neighbor Antonia. As Jim begins to separate from his childhood friends, including Antonia, he begins to strongly miss the days past. Similarly, in Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye, Holden longs for days with Allie, his dead brother. Jim and Holden both yearn for people and places that are no longer the same, but ultimately, part of their development includes acknowledging the fact that they cannot go back in the past. Although Jim is the protagonist in My Antonia, he is one of the more passive characters. Many of his decisions do not heavily impact the world around
He leaves his school after being kicked out, only then to go to several different bars in New York City, hoping to get alcohol. “He sat at that goddam bar till around one o'clock or so, getting drunk as a bastard.” (Salinger, 150) Holden remembers a simpler time when his brother was alive and he had a stable home life. Being the Catcher in the rye represents Holden’s want to protect other children from adulthood; from a fate similar to his. "What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if [the kids] start to go over the cliff... I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That’s all I’d do all day. I’d just be the catcher in the rye and all.” (Salinger, 173) Jim, from My Antonia, takes a more passive role in the novel, but still deals with maturity. Towards the end of the novel, Jim realizes that there is nothing left in his hometown, and revels in memories in the past. Although both novels may have different opinions on the topic of growing up, Catcher in the Rye is regret, whereas My Antonia is more nostalgia based, both Jim and Holden have lost a person, whether to death or growing apart, and miss the old